Undemocratic

The Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAEW) has issued an unusually strongly worded attack on HMRC wrt to "draconian" new HMRC powers that could force late payers of employment taxes into liquidation.

The ICAEW describes them as "wrong in principle and undemocratic".

The new measures, to be introduced in April 2011, will allow HMRC to demand financial security from businesses that regularly fail to remit PAYE and NI contributions on time or at all.

Businesses that refuse to provide security will be liable to a fine of £5K, as it would be deemed a criminal offence.

Frank Haskew of the ICAEW told the FT that he fears that HMRC's measures will also hit legitimate businesses that have difficulties paying tax because of cashflow problems.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

The Cheque's In The Post

HMRC continues to push for taxpayers to file and pay online.

As part of its strategy to make paper transactions as awkward as possible, and indeed to improve its cashflow, HMRC have changed the rules wrt cheque payments.

As from the 1 April, cheque payments will not be treated as received until the day the cheque clears, rather than when it arrives.

This means that people will be relying on HMRC's efficiency, wrt opening the post and and actually banking the cheque, in order to avoid a penalty.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC Upsets Farmers

The Farmers' Union of Wales is a tad peeved with HMRC's directive that all VAT returns be filed online as from 1 April this year.

Emyr James, the union's business development director, has told the Farmers' Guardian that some farmers in remote areas do not have a computer or do not have access to broadband.

HMRC have suggested that these farmers ask a friend to offer them access, or employ an agent.

Funny that, I though HMRC didn't like agents?

Emyr James is not impressed:

"This is a typically heavy-handed government approach, showing very little appreciation of the true situation for many small-to-medium-sized enterprises."

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Power Corrupts

As part of the government's ongoing politicisation of HMRC, and desire to use HMRC as a tool of social control, the recent Budget will give HMRC the power to intercept any suspicious mail anywhere in the country and open it before it is delivered.

The new powers (to be implemented via an amendment to the Postal Services Act) are coming in on the auspices of cracking down on tobacco smuggling. However, HMRC are already drooling and slavering over the prospects of being able to snoop and spy on people.

The Telegraph reports that an HMRC spokesman said that the powers would be applied much more widely.

HMRC inspectors currently must notify the addressee and agree a mutually acceptable time to open the letter or parcel, before deciding whether to take any enforcement action.

However, the new powers will allow HMRC to open "suspicious" post without asking permission first.

So who determines what is "suspicious" or not?

Ah, that would be HMRC.

Judge, jury and executioner rolled into one.

No dangers there then of corruption occurring, and the powers being misused!

Not!

This is one step further down the road towards dictatorship.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Hanging On The Telephone - PAC Catch Up

Way back in January I noted the following:

"The National Audit Office (NAO) report that up to 44 million calls to HMRC went unanswered in the year 2008-09.

Out of the 103M calls made to HMRC's directorate handling telephone enquiries (an increase of 22% compared to the previous year), 57% (58M) were answered (down from 71% in the previous year).

The National Audit Office stated:

'In terms of handling telephone enquiries, the Department is not currently achieving value for money, as it recognises.'".

The BBC and Public Accounts Committee have finally caught up.

The BBC reports that the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has condemned HMRC's call-handling operation as "poor", and that HMRC needs to be "more ambitious" in improving its service to callers.

HMRC state that, by next year, it aims to answer 90% of calls; despite the fact that the "industry standard" is 95%.

HMRC contact centre staff spend 38% of their time handling calls, compared with an industry benchmark of 60%.

Committee chairman Edward Leigh said:

"If an organisation wants more of its customers to contact it by telephone, then it has got to be good at answering calls.

HMRC unfortunately is not very good at answering calls, its performance remaining well below industry best practice standards.

Staffing levels should be matched more closely to the peaks and troughs of demand and the department must do more to cut the number of calls it regards as unnecessary."

Maybe HMRC should revert to face to face contact centres, which worked very well in the past?

That of course would cost money, and would not fit with Brown's "promise" of everyone having a personal web page from which they can interact with all government organisations at the click of a button.

I am certainly looking forward to seeing that work!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

The Eternal Triangle

Much like a jealous lover, HMRC cannot stand the fact that businesses use tax advisers when dealing with HMRC.

HMRC want to show their "love" for businesses directly, without having to share it with others.

As such it should come as no surprise to learn that HMRC are trying a pilot scheme in Exeter, designed to remove tax advisers from the equation.

AccountingWEB reports that HMRC will be contacting local business owners directly, rather than going through their professional advisers, in order to arrange a two day examination of their tax records (without reference to their professional advisers).

HMRC claim that the pilot scheme is designed to minimise compliance costs for both "customers" and HMRC.

Andrew Browne of Bishop Fleming is not convinced:

"This initiative may be aimed at distancing business owners from their tax advisers and putting them under aggressive scrutiny by the taxman."

The old maxim "if you hire a dog, don't do the barking yourself" applies here. In the event that you are contacted by HMRC, pass on the correspondence to your tax adviser and let him/her deal with it.

That is why you are paying them.

Threesomes are much more fun!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Dispute Resolution II

As per HMRC:

"HMRC looks back at the first nine months of the new review process

On 1 April 2009 HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) introduced a new optional internal review process. Although the new system is still in its infancy, this seems a good time to take stock and to update people on progress.

HMRC worked closely with external stakeholders in the development of internal review and this publication reflects our continuing commitment to openness."

"Outcomes excluding penalty cases 3,443 cases out of 18,526
Upheld: review complete – 2,603 (76 per cent)
Deemed Upheld: time limit expired – 20 (1 per cent)
Varied – 349 (10 per cent)
HMRC decision cancelled - 471 (14 per cent)

Outcomes penalty cases 15,083 cases out of 18,526
Upheld: review complete – 6,281 (42 per cent)
Deemed upheld: time limit expired – 48 (0 per cent)
Varied – 793 (5 per cent)
HMRC notice cancelled – 7,961 (53 per cent)"

For clarity:

- 24% of non penalty cases were varied or cancelled
- 58% of penalty cases were varied or cancelled

The results clearly show that it is in the interests of the taxpayer (where there is reason to doubt HMRC's assessment) to complain.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Rearranging The Deckchairs

A loyal reader advises me that a very good source has let it be known that HMRC intends to move many of the current Tax Advisers onto Tax Credit work, even though many have little or no knowledge of this line.

The suspicion being that this move is to shore up the administration side of Tax Credits during the election period, in order to reduce the number of complaints.

I am also advised that HMRC intends to remove "unsocial hours" payments (a contractual element for the PN103 contract staff) for those working unsocial hours within the contact centres.

Anyone care to provide more information on these stories?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Dispute Resolution

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Accountancy Age reports that HMRC seems to have painted itself into a corner wrt the mountain of disputes that have piled up between itself and taxpayers.

On the one hand HMRC's mission is to maximise tax take, as such its stated litigation settlement strategy (LSS) aims is to push for a full settlement or court action if it believes it has a better than 50/50 chance of winning.

All very well.

However, the cost in terms of money, time and effort expended by HMRC (and delayed cash flow for the government's coffers) in pursuing these disputes is mounting.

Therefore some in HMRC are considering using a more "common sense" approach, namely "spinning out" the dispute resolution unit from the anti avoidance division. The mission of the new unit would be to resolve the disputes more quickly; thus improving cash flow, even if the speedier resolution means a lower tax bill.

I suspect that this common sense initiative will meet some internal "resistance" from within HMRC.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Sian Williams In Naked Protest

Snort!

The BBC report that their very own Breakfast host Sian Williams has had a tax claim for clothes and hairstyling rejected by a tribunal.

Williams' legal team said that the items should be tax deductible because it was part of her job to look good on screen.

They added she "would be prepared to read the news without clothes" and only wore them because it was "required".

The case went to tribunal at the behest of her accountant, who wanted to test the rules

Quite correctly, as every trainee accountant knows, HMRC have applied the rule that only expenses "wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred" can be deducted from income.

Memory fades as to the case, but a lawyer tried this argument re the cost of her court clothes when I was still in short trousers; she lost. The judge remarked that she would still need to wear clothes for decency.

Any bets as to whether Sian will go ahead with her naked tax protest?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

IT Matters - £10M Accenture Deal

The Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union (11 March 2010) states that HMRC has singed a £10M deal with Accenture to improve the capabilities of its in house IT development team, IMS Solutions Development and Delivery (SDD).

Accenture will support "the transformation of SDD into a highly effective IT development and delivery organisation" and "improve the quality, availability and delivery of SDD developed applications/services".

The value of this contract (which has a fixed and variable portion) was initially estimated to be in the range of £18M to £36M. The variable portion could not be estimated at the time of publication of the contract award.

Therefore the final value of this contract is £10M, which is the value of the fixed price portion of this contract.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Spies 'R Us

Public Service reports that the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and GCHQ are working on a new network to collaborate with other agencies.

It seems that a recent initiative (SCOPE phase two), which was designed to deliver intelligence to law enforcement, government departments and agencies, has failed.

However, the government is never afraid to have another go at improving its spying capabilities. As such a new initiative has been launched.

Collaboration in the Intelligence Community (CLiC) is intended to be a "low-risk, inexpensive approach".

Former chief of SIS, Sir John Scarlett, is quoted:

"CLiC is designed to shore up... some of the capability that SCOPE 2 would have given us... We are doing really quite well on this more modest CLiC programme, which is not being run out of the Cabinet Office, it is being run out of SIS and GCHQ... and it will be of community-wide value when it is delivered."

What has this got to do with HMRC? I hear you ask.

Well, guess which agency will be the first to benefit from CLiC?

Yes, that's right, HMRC!

On the assumption that all things go according to plan, HMRC will be able to receive Top Secret intelligence and communicate securely via email.

Seemingly the improbably named secure messaging system STRAP3A (do a Google of images for this, and you come up with some quite unusual pictures) will let GCHQ, SIS, MI5, the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign Office (FCO), the Cabinet Office, the Home Office et al exchange Top Secret information by April.

Needless to say, this being secret, the costs and contractor involved are all "hush hush". However, it seems that HMRC are footing part of the bill.

Let us trust that the information shared is better handled than other information that government agencies are prone to lose.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

IT Matters

Trailers From Hell Xtra - Colossus: The Forbin Project
by trailersfromhellxtra

It seems that HMRC are having a few IT issues (eg delays in implementing new systems) that has left HMRC with 35 million tax cases to be manually processed.

The Treasury Select Committee recently reported that open cases have more than doubled from 16.2M in 2007.

The Treasury Select Committee's report states:

"Against this background, we were surprised to see HMRC declare in its Annual Report that 'HMRC has been hailed as a shining example of how to use technology to take government services to a new level'."

The report notes that progress re improving the 92 systems, that HMRC claim are critical to operations, has been "uneven" despite the "substantial investment".

Snippets

4 54. In its Annual Report 2009, HMRC claims[88] that it is hitting its target to improve customers' experience, and that "results indicate that customer satisfaction exceeds our target levels."[89] We find it hard to reconcile these claims with its customer complaint levels and call response rates. Whilst we accept that these are not the whole picture, we urge HMRC to reflect on whether customer experiences of HMRC are yet improving as much as the DSO2 "strong progress" summary implies.

In particular, call response rates—though improving—remain at unacceptably low levels. The April 2011 target of answering 90% of calls remains challenging and will continue to require the attention of senior management.

68. In a previous report,[108] we recommended that HMRC improve its contracts with IT providers, noting that one new IT system had been delayed by a year. One consequence of this delay is that, during 2008-09, the number of open cases (where a case requires manual clerical attention) increased from 16.2 million in 2007-08 to 35 million.

Against this background, we were surprised to see HMRC declare in its Annual Report that "HMRC has been hailed as a shining example of how to use technology to take government services to a new level."[109] Lesley Strathie, however, remained bullish about HMRC's IT progress, including a new agreement with its suppliers under the Aspire contract "which will significantly reduce cost for department over the coming years."[110]

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Handling Stolen Data

Here's an interesting "little" story about some stolen data files, no not the "datagate" files of 25 million British citizens, but some stolen data files from HSBC Switzerland.

HSBC stated yesterday that a former IT employee had stolen information concerning 24,000 clients and former customers.

The Times reports that the French authorities have now acquired the data, and are examining data on the 3,000 French account holders on the list.

The question hanging in the air is whether HMRC will seek to acquire this ill gotten data (or at least the portion that covers British citizens who may, or may not, have been evading tax).

Switzerland has categorically stated that it will not co-operate with any attempt by foreign tax authorities to use the data. HSBC have also stated:

"We will not support any authorities seeking to use stolen data in pursuit of tax inquiries."

However, HMRC have "form" in this area as they acquired stolen data relating to Liechtenstein bank accounts three years ago.

Whilst the Swiss may not offer up any details, the French authorities who now have the data may well be less fussy.

Tax evasion is illegal.

However, should a government organ be using illegally acquired data to pursue suspected tax evaders?

Do two wrongs really make a right in this case?

In some countries, evidence acquired without due process (eg a warrant) is deemed inadmissible.

Doubtless there may be many who argue that tax evaders (remember it has to be proven first that they are evaders) don't deserve the protection of the law. Cut down one law and others will be exposed to an overzealous state seeking to prosecute those that it deems to have acted "illegally".

Would you be happy with state organs, eg the police, bursting into your homes without due process having been followed?

Will HMRC start to pay people to commit theft on its behalf?

That is where this may well lead.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Hanging On The Telephone - Post Industrial Action

One of my loyal readers sent me this message today:

"Now that the industrial action is over I have this morning tried to telephone HMRC.

I have tried 2 agent priority numbers in addition to the usual number for those same offices. On each try, and I have tried all 4 numbers at least twice each, I get through, get the usual recorded message, and then an engaged tone!!

Is their way of catching up after the industrial action?!"

Anyone else having problems getting through?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC Management Shows Its True Face

Re this comment about Lesley Strathie's (CEO of HMRC) attitude to staff morale, made in relation to yesterday's, article:

"Strathie said in a phone in last year that she has no interest whatsoever in whether her staff are happy or not."

Did she really say that?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Disengaged

Midway through the 48 hour walkout staged by the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, which has affected HMRC offices, comes a public slagging off of the management of HMRC by the Treasury Select Committee.

The Treasury Select Committee has issued a report that states:

"Performance at HMRC remains mixed with considerable room for improvement."

The Telegraph quotes a "Government insider":

"This is extremely concerning.

The country's finances are in a poor enough state already and now we learn that HMRC needs rebuilding too."

I find that statement to be alarming in itself. How can it be that the government is only just now learning that HMRC is in a mess?

The Committee is "deeply concerned about employee engagement at HMRC and its effect on performance."

That's alright though, because Lesley Strathie (CEO of HMRC) has denied that poor morale is hitting tax collection.

The Committee is "deeply troubled by the apparent absence of any detailed plan to ameliorate the situation", and asked that HMRC bosses "redouble their efforts to re-engage with their workforce".

The good news is that HMRC have now said:

"HMRC senior managers are addressing the causes of low morale. The Department's new business plan includes a key objective to improve staff commitment."

Sorted!

I assume then that there will be no more comments from HMRC staff on this site wrt how poorly they are being treated by their line managers?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC Target Doctors and Dentists

Health Care Republic reports that Dave Hartnett has warned that HMRC is currently targeting doctors and dentists.

Speaking at a roundtable discussion about HMRC's Tax Health Plan (THP) last week, Hartnett said:

"A common feature of all our campaigns is that they address a sector or a group where there is a serious tax risk.

There is no particular reason why doctors and dentists are first.

We've risk assessed doctors and dentists and we've found there is a material level of non-compliance in various ways."

Seemingly HMRC have obtained data that suggests to Hartnett that the problem for this group was bigger than HMRC had first thought.

I guess that doctors and dentists have nothing better to do than look forward to a protracted battle with HMRC over the coming months. Attending to patients will have to take second place.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

OCD

Oh dear it would appear that HMRC has had an outbreak of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

That at least would appear to be the conclusion to be drawn from the report in the Cambridge News, concerning the letters sent by HMRC to Sharone Freed (director of Freed Fencing).

The letters from HMRC were demands for tax.

Fair enough!

Except that Mr Freed received 52 envelopes from HMRC, each containing 4 letters demanding sums ranging from £100 to £3K (grand total £39K).

Mr Freed is appealing the fines, which have been suspended pending a final decision.

HMRC told the Cambridge News:

"Incorrectly issued penalties are not the result of a system problem but failure to correctly follow procedure - this is being put right."

Surely the automated system, if working correctly, would have flagged a "procedural error"?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Hanging On The Telephone

My commiserations to Stuart Jones, of 3CA chartered accountants, who is quoted in a post made yesterday on Taxation:

"Yesterday afternoon I phoned the VAT helpline five or six times to be told (in a recorded message):

'I'm very sorry. We're busy right now. You might try ringing us back another time.'

Thinking I would have more success early this morning, I phoned at 8:40, 8:50 and 9:05, only to hear the same message.

What is this Government playing at?

And, how on Earth, do we do our job efficiently?".

Stuart dropped me a note yesterday afternoon about this, adding:

"Since my last comment I have phoned at 14.30, 15.25 and 16.08 to hear the same bloody recorded message."

Is he alone in having problems in getting through?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Training Matters

Following the datagate scandal in 2007, when HMRC lost the personal details of around 25 million people, HMRC have launched an extensive retraining exercise for its 85,000 employees in order to avoid future such incidents.

Jeff Brooker, HMRC's man in charge of security and business continuity issues, announced details of the retraining last week at the Human Factors in Information Security Conference.

Security will now be placed at the heart of HMRC's business strategy, and in the performance objectives of every employee, via "12 golden rules".

In addition, a data security rulebook has been introduced by HRMC and workshops will be provided for staff.

Progress indeed!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Too Complex

Last week the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) finally stated what the long suffering public (and staff of HMRC) have known for quite sometime, namely that the UK tax system is way too complex.

Specifically, HMRC's system for dealing with older people's tax affairs is too complex and leads to many people overpaying tax.

PAC estimated that 1.5 million older people have overpaid £250M of tax, and that HMRC does not know how many people miss out on the age related allowances that they are entitled to.

Edward Leigh, PAC chairman, said that HMRC's systems do "not cope well" with people's multiple sources of income (which are more prevalent as people become elderly).

PAC made a number of recommendations to HMRC:

- Establishing a clear plan by June 2010 to make the system simpler for older people and reduce errors

- Forecasting the growing numbers of older people and helping them with their tax affairs

- Accurately calculating how many people fail to claim their age-related allowances

- Providing people with a single document explaining how their tax code is calculated

- Provide a single point of contact for older people to get help in dealing with their tax affairs.

It is not just older people who find the tax system confusing.

However, given the fact that the country is bankrupt these recommendations will doubtless gather dust as there is neither the money nor the political will to implement them.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Computer Says No II

Last week I mentioned that a firm of accountants had been receiving letters from HMRC concerning BACS payments made to HMRC by the firm's clients, but not registered by HMRC.

It seems that this is not an isolated incident. Another firm of accountants has written to me saying that their clients have also been receiving the same letters.

However, many of their clients have also been receiving late tax return penalty notices stating that HMRC did not receive the tax return by the due date. This is despite the fact that HMRC's online services show that the returns were received sometime before the deadline.

That being said, there is one saving grace, all the penalty notices are showing a nil penalty!

Confused?

I am!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"